The Climb

We woke up to sound of a little girl singing in her bedroom.
Bleary-eyed from broken sleep, Mr G muttered to me, "Now that's the sound of a happy child..."
She was singing Miley Cyrus - what else but The Climb?

Can I admit here to you in the safety of my little blog that I actually love that song? The lyrics speak to me and when I hear my daughter singing it at the top of her lungs first thing in the morning, it makes me feel happy.

She doesn't always get the words exactly right, but she sure is enthusiastic (and sings in a very cute American accent)...

I can almost see it, those dreams I'm dreamin'
There's a voice inside my head sayin', you'll never reach it.

It's been a while since we did a proper family outing on a Saturday. We've gotten a bit lazy and apathetic on weekends, but Miss Fab is always begging for us to do things "as a family". Yesterday afternoon (after a busy morning of football and friends for brunch) she came up with the idea of going to Clip'n'Climb, an indoor climbing centre for kids. Why not? we thought. We even found a 2-for-1 voucher.

But ohhhhh, I'm gonna be strong
Just keep pushin' on

Oh the excitement. What a fabulous place - it was like a climbing Cave of Wonders. The tether ropes are counter-weighted, so they actually help pull the kids up, and coming down is half the fun.

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna want to make it move

I strapped Miss Fab into her harness while Mr G buckled up Dash and juggled the Scrag (who just wanted to get climbing too).

The first wall the kids attempted was colourful backlit bricks. Dash scurried up and swung down grinning. Miss Fab (a regular spider monkey) bounced excitedly on the spot waiting for her turn.

As she climbed up, we stood below cheering her on, until we realised that she was... sobbing??! But still... climbing???!! She was about 3/4 of the way up the wall, terrified but still keeping on going.

There's always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

"Come back, honey, let go, just come down..." I called. She returned to earth and crumpled in a tearful heap. I unclipped my baby girl and cuddled her while she sobbed, "I don't want to do this anymore, I want to go home..."

The floor manager saw our plight and hurried over offering a jar of sweeties. He spoke to her about just climbing as high as she felt comfortable and then coming back down...

She wiped off her tears but was still unconvinced. I suggested that we just have a walk around and see if there was anything that took her fancy to have a go at, which she relucantly agreed to.

Aint about how fast I get there
Aint about what's waiting on the other side
It's The Climb.

We explored the place, with Miss Fab rejecting plenty of colourful and imaginative climbing options... until she spotted a rope ladder. This one looked do-able. She climbed a few rungs, looking back to me for reassurance. A couple more, then she dropped back to earth, smiling. "That was easy," she said.

And tried again. And again. And again. Going a little higher each time, she regained her confidence so much that before long she made it all the way to the top.

This time when she landed, she hugged me and hugged me, laughing, "This is so fun mama! I love it! Let's try something else!"

It's all about, it's all about The Climb

And that was that. For the rest of our time she used that strategy: Climbing as far as she was comfortable, then come back to safety. Try again and go a little further. Keep going and eventually reach the top.

Before we left she even surpassed her big brother and made it all the way to the top of the green pillars - inspiring him to go again and climb higher too.

There's a lesson there, isn't there??

Keep the faith... Keep the faith
Keep climbing, keep moving

Whatever it is that scares us, whatever we need to conquer, we can take a few little steps... a few more... retreat to safety then try again. All we have to do is keep trying and we'll get there.

And we may even wake up one morning, singing...



It's all about, it's all about the Climb.